What happens when I work with something that’s been augmented?
During an “AR experience” you see a small block of text, a picture, or diagram (and/or hear the sounds) that appear in your field of view at the same time as you also see your surroundings. When you move, the digital information moves with respect to your point of view and stays with the object or place that is being enhanced, as if the digital information were “attached” to the physical world by invisible threads.

How is AR being used in the business and consumer environments?
AR is frequently used on smartphones or tablets for consumer entertainment and brand engagement (advertising and marketing) campaigns; however, there are many ways that the same technology components can be used on a daily basis to benefit professional users and businesses.

AR, as a field, is expected to experience a compound annual growth rate of over 30% through 20181, and the possibilities for AR in industry and in consumer use are endless.

Why is AR valuable?
Augmented Reality is valuable for helping to “discover” and use information in context. Similar to the technology that provides “just in time” learning, the sensors and software on AR-assisted devices will detect exactly where a user’s attention is focused. After analyzing the focus of user attention, the system searches to find any matches between the focus of attention and digital information stored within local or cloud-based databases.

Since a user can focus on anything in his or her surroundings, and the digital world is full of information about those objects and places, the number of use cases for AR is very, very large.

Why is AR an IEEE-SA Area of Innovation?
The IEEE-SA is leading campaigns and projects to ensure that AR reaches its full potential because AR will make us more efficient and add to the quality of human life. The IEEE-SA is investing in this area to educate and inform you about this vital new information technology trend and to support the industry’s smooth growth.

Through IEEE-SA activities and programs, you will discover from the world’s best authoritative and objective source the benefits of AR and the obstacles that stand in its way.

The IEEE is also assisting the development of AR’s true potential by:

encouraging the use of standards, open interfaces, and sound engineering practices when designing and delivering AR experiences

engaging industry stakeholders in dialog about the existing or future potential and obstacles, and

developing training and certification programs that will ensure the highest return on investments in the technology

A new IEEE-SA Industry Connections program has started that will develop campaigns and projects to ensure that AR reaches its full potential as an enhancement to human life and information use.

Augmented Reality (AR) is the perception of digital information-usually visual perception-synchronized with objects and places in the physical world around the user. This IEEE-SA Innovations Space provides a concise reference point for all things in SA related to AR.

The IEEE AR in 2020 scenarios project developed the most likely scenarios for mobile, personalized information capture and delivery with AR in the year 2020. A white paper on the business landscapes for AR in 2020 is currently available.